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Today my class worked on their heart maps. Seeing as I teach 6th grade and 6th grade boys aren’t always huge fans of hearts, I borrowed Ruth’s idea here. The bone maps were an interesting addition to the activity. In the morning, most of the boys started out by taking the bone maps I offered. However, within a few minutes every boy had tossed the bone and decided to use a heart. The hearts were free-form and they said that they needed more room, which the heart offered. The hearts were looking great as we ended class. Most of them had completely filled their hearts and even began decorating them.

My afternoon class was a different story. They were more reluctant and there were a lot of “I have no memories” and “No one/thing/event is important to me”. That’s what is so hard about having two different classes. What works for one rarely works for the other and I am still feeling that out. Some of the boys in the afternoon were very anti-heart. Most of them wanted to use the bone or sketch their own bone. Unfortunately I had a few who decided this wasn’t a serious activity and they could just write any old thing down in the bone/heart. This class got a lot less done and as a result will most likely have a much harder time producing the entry that was part of their homework.

I think I will have to sit down and really rethink the direction I am going in with my afternoon class. They are very resistant to writing. They waste a lot of time whining, or drawing attention to themselves, or being inappropriate. I need to put an end to that or it will be a long year. Thank goodness for my homeroom!